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Dessert

Strawberry Short-cake

A layered cake with butter and sliced strawberries, served with sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Strawberry Short-cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and sugar.

  3. Cut in the butter until crumbly.

  4. Divide the dough in half.

  5. Roll each half to fit a biscuit tin or large pie tin.

Layer and bake

  1. Spread soft butter on the bottom layer and place the top layer on it.

  2. Repeat with the second half of the dough.

  3. Bake until golden brown, then remove from the oven.

  4. Slice each shortcake where the butter was spread to separate layers.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the bottom layer on a serving plate and cover with prepared strawberries mixed with sugar.

  2. Add the top layer and pour any remaining strawberry juice around the cake.

  3. Serve with a pitcher of sweet cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the layers together.
Butter
Creates tender, flaky layers as it separates the dough and melts during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the shortcake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the shortcake and to the strawberries.
Strawberries
Add fruity sweetness, acidity, and juice that moistens the layers.

The step that matters

Cut in the butter until crumbly. Keeping the butter in small, distinct pieces leaves pockets that create a tender, flaky crumb. Overworking the dough develops gluten and makes the shortcake tough.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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